4 



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FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



conclusive : " Apples, pears, plums, gooseberries, and other fruits, when fresh and ripe, 

 fulfil the essential conditions of pleasantness, digestibility, nutriency and medicinality. 

 For summer eating they are especially admirable because they are both satisfying 

 and thirst-quenching. We ought to eat, as a people, ten times more fruit than we 

 do, and it is ten times more delicious than nauseous medicines." 



It may be expected that few thoughtful persons will be inclined to dispute those 

 propositions ; especially, perhaps, the last of them. Fruit, in its best condition, is the 

 purest of food, health-giving, life-sustaining and delicious. It was the first food of 

 the human family, and it has been the last food of countless thousands in the decline 

 of life, accepted and enjoyed when coarser was rejected, and so it will be to the end 

 of time. 



Yet the full value of fruit is by no means generally appreciated. It is regarded by 

 many, if not the majority, as a luxury : and a luxury it undoubtedly is to vast numbers of 

 the dwellers in populous cities, while there are several districts in which the inhabitants 

 either do not have nearly so much as they wish, and as would be good for them, or they 

 have to consume what is inferior. A full, good, and cheap supply of the different 

 sorts of fruit that can be produced in this country would be of enormous benefit to the 

 community. How, where, and by whom fruits of various kinds, and of the best quality, 

 can be produced it is the object of this work to point out, and every cultural detail 

 advanced will be founded on experience gained in orchards, gardens, and fruit-growing 

 establishments, with and without the aid of glass structures, in various parts of the 

 kingdom, 



Until recent years the importance of systematic fruit culture in the gardens and fields 

 of Great Britain had not been adequately recognised. The pursuit is one of the most enjoy- 

 able that can be indulged in by all persons who have, or can acquire, land suitable for the 

 purpose. Home-grown fruit is a necessity of life, and the resources of the United 

 Kingdom are equal to the production of the leading kinds in the greatest excellence ; 

 indeed it is questionable if so many fruits can be grown equally well in any other part 

 of the globe as in Great Britain and Ireland. Several of the most popular of those 

 fruits, which are being more and more regarded as food products, are indigenous to our 

 land ; hence the soil and climate are suitable for their development, or can be made so, 

 the former especially, while the latter is influenced and improved by the drainage and 

 cultivation of the earth. 



Under the fostering care of thoughtful and diligent cultivators, our hardy fruits, 



